Egypt Tries to Plug Border; Gazans Poke New Hole

Saturday

Jan 26, 2008 at 5:03 AM

Large numbers of Palestinians continued to stream in and out of Egypt after more of the border wall was breached.

GAZA — Egypt tried to restore its border with Gaza on Friday, stationing riot police officers in an effort to block Palestinians from entering. But Palestinians used a bulldozer to knock down another portion of the wall separating Egypt and Gaza.

The Egyptians announced on loudspeakers that the border would be closed at various times of the day on Friday, but allowed Palestinians who were inside Egypt to return to Gaza laden with goods, even as cranes lifted pallets of supplies over another part of the border barricade. The barrier on the Egyptian side is a low concrete wall topped with barbed wire.

There were small clashes throughout the day, with short episodes of rock-throwing. Egyptians fired guns into the air and aimed water cannons above the heads of the those in the crowd to keep them back. The new breaches in the wall were large enough for cars and trucks to drive through, and some Egyptian guards then retreated.

Egypt is under pressure from Israel and the United States to restore the international border and regulate it, but does not want to use excessive force against the Gazans, whom the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, has insisted are starving under the pressure of Israeli restrictions on imports and travel.

But often in the past, Egypt has used force, including water cannons and automatic-rifle fire, against Palestinians who have breached the border, and the government will be calculating when its effort to respond generously to a crisis veers into instability or chaos. Nor does Egypt want responsibility for serving the population of Gaza, removing the burden from Israel.

Hamas is trying to push Egypt into an agreement to regulate the border without having it sealed, as it had been from the time Hamas took over Gaza in early June. A Hamas spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, said, “The gaps shouldn’t be closed because they provide urgent assistance to the Palestinians.”

Israeli officials have expressed increasing concern to the Egyptian and United States governments that Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups are using the border breach to import military supplies and to send out fighters for training or terrorism.

Israel has raised its security alert for the Sinai and warned its citizens not to travel to the region’s popular beaches, fearing attacks there, and is saying it has credible reports of new efforts to smuggle gunmen and suicide bombers through the Sinai into Israel. The last suicide bombing in Israel, in the southern resort town of Eilat a year ago, was carried out by a militant who had traveled there through the Sinai.

Hamas broke the border barrier in nearly 20 places early Wednesday morning, and Egypt, with no real alternative, has allowed perhaps 200,000 Palestinians to enter to buy food, cigarettes, medicine and other consumer goods. The trade has become increasingly commercial.

On Friday evening, the exiled chief of the Hamas political bureau, Khaled Meshal, told Reuters in Damascus, Syria, that he had accepted an invitation from Mr. Mubarak to hold further unity talks in Cairo with Mahmoud Abbas, who is the Fatah leader and the Palestinian president. Fatah controls the West Bank.

“I and all the brothers in the Hamas leadership welcome participating and will seek to make the dialogue a success,” Mr. Meshal said. There was no immediate confirmation from Mr. Abbas, who is scheduled to meet the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, on Sunday.

Gazans in El Arish, the largest Egyptian town close to the border, said they had been told to leave by 7 p.m. The provincial capital, El Arish has an airport and is known for its beaches and seafood restaurants. Thousands of Palestinians were still there on Friday afternoon, complaining about the near doubling of normal prices, but happy about their chance to get out of Gaza, and even melancholic about having to return, as if on the last day of a vacation.

Muhammad al-Hirakly, 22, said he and his friends had been in El Arish for two days, but could not get past the police to get to Cairo. “We tried to go there, to see the big city and our family there, and also the girls,” he said.

The police ordered local hotels not to take in Palestinians, but residents and mosques provided beds. “We’ve been sleeping in the Rifai Mosque. It’s nice they let us in,” Mr. Hirakly said. He was interviewed in a line to ride the bumper cars at a little amusement park. “We’re angry at the Egyptians, who try to rob us with overpriced stuff,” he said. “But it’s the most fun we’ve had in years.”

Muhammad Abu Samra, 18, came to buy cigarettes to resell and found many friends from Gaza. “Being here makes me feel like I want to see the world, breathe some fresh air,” he said. “I wish they could keep the border open; maybe one day they’ll even let us go to Cairo.” But said he and his friends planned to return to Gaza on Friday night.

Adel al-Mighraky, 54, was returning to the Rafah crossing with his grandson, and thanked Mr. Mubarak for allowing Gazans to enter. “We were like birds in a cage,” he said. Once the door is open, he said, “birds will fly away as fast as they can — this is what we did. But what kind of bird has to go back to its cage after it was freed?”

It was the first time his grandson had left Gaza, Mr. Mighraky said. “We felt free today.”

Mr. Olmert is expected to discuss the Gaza crisis along with peace talks in his Sunday meeting with Mr. Abbas. Israel is considering the possibility of granting the request of Mr. Abbas and the prime minister based in Ramallah, Salam Fayyad, to let the Palestinian Authority control the crossings between Israel and Gaza, allowing them to reopen.

Israel had previously rejected the idea, because it would loosen the economic squeeze on Hamas, which intensified last week when Israel decided to cut off shipments into Gaza, including fuel for the local power plant, in response to rocket attacks from Gaza. That move produced international protests and the Hamas decision to breach the border with Egypt.

Early on Friday, Israel killed the Hamas military commander of Rafah, Muhammad Harb, and a deputy when planes fired on his car near the border. He was said to have commanded the men who blew down the border wall and, Israel said, was involved in a raid into Israel in 2006, when Cpl. Gilad Shalit was captured. Late Thursday night, Israeli rockets hit the jeep of two other Hamas fighters in Rafah, killing them.

On Thursday night, at a checkpoint in East Jerusalem, an Israeli policeman was killed and a policewoman wounded, and Palestinian militants were suspected. On Friday, Israeli troops killed a Palestinian in Beit Omar in the West Bank when they entered to search the houses of two militants who were killed Thursday as they attacked a Jewish settlement south of Jerusalem.

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